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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, May 20, 2005

Warriors, Troubadours play for title

 •  St. Francis gets big game from Takai to top Seabury Hall

By Leila Wai
Advertiser Staff Writer

Big Island team overwhelms OIA champ Kalani, 67-34

The Kamehameha-Hawai'i girls basketball team is so low key, a preseason win over Division I top-seeded Punahou doesn't even register with it.

"It's in the past; it never really affected us," junior guard/forward Leilani Galdones said.

Kalani's Raynani Camara rises to swat the ball away from Kamehameha-Hawai'i's Lisa Yang.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Kamehameha-Hawai'i defeated Kalani, 67-34, in the semifinals of the HHSAA/Hawaiian Airlines Girls Basketball Division II State Championships yesterday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

The Warriors meet St. Francis in the championship game tonight at 6.

"The girls, I have a hard time finding their pulse," Kamehameha-Hawai'i coach Kimo Miller said. "They are very low key, they are very mature.

"They don't even think about (their win over Punahou)."

The Warriors, of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, started the game on a 7-0 run, which was ended on a pair of free throws by junior point guard Nicole Isemoto. The Falcons closed to 15-12, but a shot by Kamehameha-Hawai'i's Lisa Yang just before the quarter ended made it 17-12. It was as close as the Falcons would get.

Kamehameha-Hawai'i sank five 3-pointers and outscored Kalani, of the O'ahu Interscholastic Association, 24-3 in the second quarter to seize a 41-15 halftime lead. The Warriors hit eight 3-pointers in the half.

"Usually if people leave us open, we're going to hit it," said Galdones, who said the team didn't notice its big run.

"We weren't even paying attention to it," she said. "We were just pumped the whole game."

The Warriors extended their lead, outscoring the Falcons 16-4 in the third quarter, behind six points from junior guard/forward Jamie Mattos and five from Galdones.

Kalani did not make a field goal in about 10ý minutes, starting in the second quarter. Freshman guard Chloe Martin ended the drought with a 3-pointer that made it 50-18 with 3:38 remaining in the third quarter. The only other point by Kalani in that span was a free throw by Martin with 27 seconds left in the first half.

Galdones finished with a game-high 16 points and Mattos added 15.

Martin led Kalani with eight points, but the inspirational play came from senior co-captain Richline Gabres-Batoon, who played the final two minutes despite a knee injury suffered earlier in the season, and scored two points.

"I promised her that if we got to the states, she would get to play," Kalani coach Darold Imanaka said. "But she broke her promise; she wasn't supposed to run. She was supposed to turn and shoot."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.

• • •

St. Francis gets big game from Takai to top Seabury Hall

St. Francis center Siutiti Takai, who had 28 points and 17 rebounds, split the Seabury Hall defense for a shot in last night's semifinal.
St. Francis junior center Siutiti Takai scored 28 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in a 69-42 win over Seabury Hall in the semifinals of the HHSAA/Hawaiian Airlines Girls Basketball Division II State Championships yesterday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

St. Francis will play Kamehameha-Hawai'i in the championship game tonight at 6.

"We haven't seen anything like her," Seabury Hall coach Philip Tongg. "She's the total package. She has great hands."

Takai is 5 feet, 11 inches, and Seabury Hall's tallest players, Talia Anama and Korena Burgio, are 5-9.

St. Francis, of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu, opened up with an 11-0 lead, led by five points by Takai and six points from junior guard Kanani Perry.

It took Seabury Hall more than three minutes to score its first points, on a basket by freshman forward Yacine Meyer.

The Spartans, of the Maui Interscholastic League, closed to 15-8 at the quarter, but Takai took over again to start the second quarter, scoring the Troubadours' first 11 points. She finished with 15 in the second quarter to help St. Francis to a 33-17 halftime lead.

"We tried to force the lob, but it ended up that they were proficient at it," Tongg said.

Also causing problems for Seabury Hall was St. Francis' defense, which forced 25 turnovers.

"We didn't know how quick they were," St. Francis coach Paul Tanaka said. "But when we saw our girls playing with energy, we went ahead and did the press. That's when we forced the issue. They had so much energy today, it worked."

By the time Takai scored her 28th and final point, with about 6ý minutes left in the game, Seabury Hall had 30 points as a team. A few minutes later, and St. Francis had its largest lead of the game, 63-30, with 4ý minutes left, on a basket by junior guard Emma Dacalio-Spencer.

Tanaka said the biggest difference for Takai this season is her conditioning.

"Now that she's in shape, teams are going to adjust their defense for her," Tanaka said. "That usually leaves the other players open."

Kanani Perry and senior forward/center Tiyana Fao finished with nine points and freshman guard Nicole Perry had eight for the Troubadours.

Seabury Hall's Meyer scored 15 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2457.